Saralas: Session 68

20 Elient, Caves of Hunger

• We start in a fight with the snow golems
• Two of the golems attack me, but only one connects, hitting pretty hard.
• Min, Baerwin, and Resda all use fire spells, killing three of the snow golems.
• Karthos does some healing.
• Korag moves in and does something radiant.
• I use my lit torch to strike one to the north of me, doing some fire damage, but it's still alive
• Korag's things kill one of the last, two left
• Both of the remaining guys hit me and I go down
• Karthos heals me some
• Baerwin kills one more
• Resda, the greatest sorcerer in the world, kills the last one
• Resda stops sneering, and also the magic eyeball stops working
• I would like to take a rest, heal up a bit
• We head back to the cave with the golem head to rest up and heal a bit. After an hour and some bandages I am feeling a lot better.
• We head back to the caves the golems came from but we don't find anything. It looks like the vampire was up here, but left when we were resting.
• We head to the south. The floor is very slick, and several party members fall on the ice
• We are overpowered by the stench of death, and there are littered bones with clear toothmarks on them.
• The stench of death is stronger to the south. Vampire? Do vampires gnaw on bones? I am not sure.
• From the crossroads we find here we explore the eastern cave. Entombed in the icy floor of this 20-foot high cave is the frozen, well preserved corpse of a frost giant. Scratch marks in the ice show evidence something tried to get through the ice, but halfheartedly. They appear humanoid, but clawed. The corpse is under 2 feet of ice.
• It doesn't appear to have anything of value, and we leave it alone. We head south.
• A deathly stench emanates from a 10 foot high cave where skulls surround a pillar of ice. There is a hole in the pillar where it looks like something has burst out of it, but appears to be nothing else in the cave.
• The skulls are clearly intentionally laid out in a circle around the pillar.
• Karthos says he thinks there was a gnoll entombed here, judging by the claw marks on the sides of the cavity. It must be undead to have survived such entombment and clawed itself out.
• Baerwin says "so there's a vampire gnoll in here". "Undead something" says Karthos. Skant the idiot goes "of course its a vampire, you fool."
• We head back towards the crossroads between the tunnel down to the Remorhaz or the path down past the tentacle monster.
• Korag asks if we hear whispers, but no one else heard anything.
• We head west, a deep sigh emanates and I hear something that sounds like elvish, but an unfamiliar dialect. I am able to make it out. Cursed be those who gaze upon the horror that Drakorath has become. Such promise wasted. Where were you centuries and years ago when he was in the prime of his life. Where were you when the frigid darkness consumed him? Nothing remains of him but frozen bone, ancient treasures, and me.
• Peering into a dark corner of the cave, a wraith materializes in front of Karthos.
• I fire an arrow at it but it passes straight through.
• Resda hits it with thunder damage, but it appears to resist the effects
• Baerwin hits it with one of his cold attacks but it appears to resist the effects
• Korag hits it with a bolt of radiant light
• It hits Resda and she doesn't look well.
• Since piercing damage doesn't seem to do anything I spend one charge of the charm of animal conjuring I got and bring forth a giant elk. It's pretty big.
• Others keep hitting it with magic damage but it's mostly resistant
• The elk moves up to attack. But though it connects it does no damage.
• What the fuck is even the point of Saralas at this point? Last two fights and no damage.
• The wraith tries to attack me but I dodge out of the way.
• I light another torch
• Resda does something and the guy seems hurt.
• Baerwin hits it with his glaive again
• I hit it with my lit torch, and it dies, exploding into purple mist. I extinguish my torch.
• I examine the room. There is a crack in the wall that can be shimmied through. Baerwin and Min both rush to get through the crack without looking.
• They find a small chamber containing a frost-covered skeleton of what was clearly a Netherese mage. He must have died here when Netheril fell. He probably broke his back and died in the dark of exposure.
• He is clad in a mantle of spell resistance surrounded the by the rotted remains of spellbooks that are no longer legible. The mage is holding a staff of charming made out of black ice, and suffused with magic. Min takes both.
• We retreat to the smaller room with the skeleton and try to long rest. We set watches and Min sets an alarm. Karthos tells us he heard some skittering, clawing noises in the cave while he was on watch. When he peeked out, he saw the kobold vampire sneaking around, followed by a much larger, more menacing looking shadow. After a time, the creatures leave. He thinks it was the gnoll vampire.

21 Elient, Caves of Hunger, Before Dawn

• Resda looks much better having rested.
• We head back to the eastern room with the floor hole. We head towards the room with the tentacle monster. A flat sheet of cloudy ice forms one one of this 40 foot high cavern. Something dark and humungous shifts behind the wall. We become aware we are not alone inside our minds.